Parliament’s Speaker Gerry Brownlee says he will seek a meeting with Te Pāti Māori co-leaders next week following what he has described as “contempt of the House” during the maiden speech of MP Oriini Kaipara yesterday.
Kaipara’s 23-minute speech exceeded her allocated time, with repeated bell chimes from Brownlee ignored as she continued to speak.
“This is not on,” he said.
Around 100 people sat in the public gallery for Kaipara’s maiden speech and, despite an agreement that only a waiata would follow, two haka were performed, prompting Brownlee to suspend the House.
“When we have people coming into the House who decide they’re not going to abide by their agreements, then they put themselves in a contemptuous position,” he said.
“The behaviour in the gallery was contemptuous, and it’s my intention over the next couple of days to find out whether or not that was by agreement with any party inside this House.
“People go onto marae all over the country and respect the protocols. We have a protocol here, it is our tikanga,” he said.
Kaipara, who decisively won the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election last month, spoke about Māori resilience and her journey from journalist to MP. “I covered stories and now I choose to change them,” she said.
The disruption followed a turbulent week for Te Pāti Māori. Activist group Toitū Te Tiriti announced it was cutting political ties with the party, accusing its leadership of operating a “dictatorship model”.
Spokesperson Eru Kapa-Kingi, who is the son of Te Pāti Māori MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, said decisions were being made by a small group at the top, with little input from the wider movement. He also claimed the party had failed to hold required AGMs and hui with electorate branches.
“There needs to be accountability,” he said. “Power doesn’t sit with one party — it sits with the people.”
Toitū Te Tiriti, one of its closest allies, has cut ties with the party. (Source: 1News)
Te Pāti Māori leadership had promised a reset this week, coinciding with Kaipara’s maiden speech.
“We don’t need to rebuild the waka, we need to correct our course,” said co-leader Rawiri Waititi.
Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said the party had experienced “growth spurts and growing pains” with the addition of four new MPs this term.
“We’ve been tested in ways we’ve never been tested before as a movement, and we own that.”
However, the reset was quickly overshadowed by the refusal to answer media questions about alleged leadership tensions.
Waititi warned reporters before the press conference that only questions about the party’s reset would be answered.
When 1News political editor Maiki Sherman asked about the allegations, Waititi ended the session, pulling Ngarewa-Packer away, saying: “Kia ora, Maiki, thank you. You fellas can thank Maiki for that one.”
TPM’s co-leader refused to answer a question from 1News’ Maiki Sherman during a news conference about the party’s “reset”. (Source: 1News)
